Increase Your Team's Performance

This is from HBR's Management Tip of the Day:

AUGUST 30, 2011

3 Ways to Increase Your Team's Performance

Successfully managing a team is a complex undertaking. Increase the odds of reaching your goals by doing the following three things: Establish urgency. Team members need to believe they're working on something that matters. And it needs to matter today, not at a nebulous point in the future. Be sure the team sees the potential fruits of its labor. Set high standards. The higher the expectations the more likely the team will live up to its performance potential. Set ambitious goals and hold the team to them. Start off on the right foot. Pay particular attention to first meetings and initial impressions. How a team starts its work together often sets the tone for future interactions.

If "start off on the right foot" is one of the top three it sounds to me like it's a new team. If it's a new team I believe high standards are important, but I would change that step to be "set clear and attainable goals" and within that add "set clear expectations". If the desired outcome isn't clear then you can bet the desired outcome will not happen - people need direction and clear expectations so they know what is expected.

What are your thoughts on this?